Leaving Cert Grades Explained: What Percentage Is a H1?
A H1 is 90% or above at Higher Level. The full H1-H8 and O1-O8 percentage bands with CAO points, what happens below 30%, and whether a H7 counts as a pass.
ExamAI Team7 min read 
A H1 is 90% or more in a Higher Level subject. The band is the same in every subject, because it is defined as a percentage of the marks available on the paper.
The same 90% at Ordinary Level is an O1. The bands are identical at both levels, and the letter in front of the number tells you which paper you sat.
The grade bands
The State Examinations Commission grades every Leaving Cert subject on an 8-point scale. Grade 1 is the highest and grade 8 the lowest. Grades 1 to 7 divide the range from 100% down to 30% into seven bands, each 10 percentage points wide, and anything under 30% is a grade 8. Grades at Higher Level carry an H in front, grades at Ordinary Level an O (NCCA subject specification, page 21).
This table is the Common Points Scale and Grading System sheet from the CAO, the Central Applications Office that turns grades into college offers, with its points added beside each grade.
| Marks in the subject | Higher Level | Ordinary Level |
|---|---|---|
| 90% to 100% | H1, 100 points | O1, 56 points |
| 80% to under 90% | H2, 88 points | O2, 46 points |
| 70% to under 80% | H3, 77 points | O3, 37 points |
| 60% to under 70% | H4, 66 points | O4, 28 points |
| 50% to under 60% | H5, 56 points | O5, 20 points |
| 40% to under 50% | H6, 46 points | O6, 12 points |
| 30% to under 40% | H7, 37 points | O7, 0 points |
| under 30% | H8, 0 points | O8, 0 points |
Read the percentage column first and the level second. A percentage on its own does not name a grade until you say which paper it came from, so 75% is a H3 at Higher Level and an O3 at Ordinary Level.
The points differ between the two columns. An O1 and a H5 are both worth 56 points, so 90% at Ordinary Level scores what 50% scores at Higher Level. How those points are added up, and what the maths bonus does to them, is in our post on how CAO points work. The rest of this post stays on the grades themselves.
Where each band starts and stops
The CAO sheet writes the bands as 80 < 90, meaning 80 up to but not including 90. So a mark of exactly 90 is a H1, and a mark of 89 is a H2. Every band works that way, with the round number belonging to the band above.
So 69% sits inside the 60 to under 70 band and is a H4. 70% clears the boundary and is a H3. 65% is a H4 as well, since the whole range from 60 to 69 is one grade.
For any mark from 30% to 99%, subtract the first digit of the percentage from 10 and you have the grade number. A mark in the 60s gives 10 minus 6, which is a grade 4. A mark in the 90s is a grade 1, as is 100%.
What happens below 30%
Marks under 30% are a H8 at Higher Level and an O8 at Ordinary Level. That is the bottom band on the scale, and it covers everything from 0% to 29%. A H8 and an O8 are both worth 0 CAO points.
The band above it is where the two levels separate. A H7, at 30% to under 40%, is worth 37 points. An O7, at the same percentages, is worth 0.
The old grades are gone
If you have seen A1, B2, C3, D3, E, F or NG, those are the grades the Leaving Cert used up to 2016. There were 14 of them, and the bands from D3 upwards were 5 percentage points wide. A1 was 90 to 100 per cent, A2 was 85 to 89, B1 was 80 to 84, and so on down to D3 at 40 to 44, then E at 25 to 39, F at 10 to 24 and NG at 0 to 9 (ESRI, The Early Impact of the Revised Leaving Certificate Grading Scheme, Table 1.2). From August 2017, results are issued on the eight-grade scale above.
The CAO converts the old grades onto the current points scale for anyone applying with pre-2017 results (New Common Points Scale for Entry to Higher Education from 2017). A Higher Level A1 from 2016 scores 100 points, the same as a H1. A Higher Level E scores 33, and F and NG score 0. Those letters no longer appear on a current statement of results, so a grade you get today will be a H or an O with a number after it.
Is a H7 a pass?
The eight-point scale has no grade marked pass and none marked fail. It reports which band of marks you landed in, and that is all it reports.
The word "pass" carries over from the old scale, where the lowest grade that college entry requirements would accept was a D3, at 40 to 44 per cent. The ESRI's evaluation of the change sets the two scales side by side. The new H6 and O6 grades, at 40 to 49 per cent, replaced D2 and D3, and the new H7 and O7 grades, at 30 to 39 per cent, replaced the old E grade, which ran from 25 to 39 per cent. So the H7 band reaches below where a D3 started.
The threshold that does the work now is the minimum entry requirement, the set of grades a college demands before it will consider you for a course at all. The CAO's grading sheet lists the general matriculation requirements, which are the baseline grades for entry to higher education, in these forms:
- 2 H5 grades and 4 O6/H7 grades
- 5 O6/H7 grades
- 3 H5 grades and 3 O6/H7 grades
The CAO's 2017 changeover document maps these onto the old wording. The requirement that used to read "2 higher level C3 grades and 4 ordinary level D3 grades" became "2 H5 and 4 O6/H7 grades". Where a college used to name D3, it now names O6 or H7.
Those are baseline grades for entry to higher education in general. Individual requirements are set course by course by each institution, and the CAO sheet tells applicants to check the higher education institutions' own websites for course-specific requirements. A course can ask for a H4 in a named subject, and no total points score substitutes for it.
Foundation Level
Irish and Mathematics can also be taken at Foundation Level (Citizens Information), and those grades are prefixed with an F. Foundation Level Mathematics carries points only at the top two grades, 20 points for an F1 and 12 for an F2, and the CAO Handbook 2026 notes that some institutions do not award even those. Check with the admissions office of any college on your list.
Finding out what band you are in now
A grade table tells you what 62% is worth. It does not tell you whether you are at 62%.
The way to get that number is to sit a past paper under exam conditions and mark it against the official marking scheme, which awards the marks question by question. Divide your total by the marks available on the paper, and the percentage lands in one of the bands above.
Papers and schemes are free. The Leaving Cert maths past papers page puts each year's Higher and Ordinary papers beside their marking schemes, and every other subject works the same way, for example Leaving Cert Biology. Search any of them from the past paper finder. Our post on how to study with past papers covers sitting and marking one properly.
One marked paper is one measurement, taken on one day, from one paper. Several of them, each dated, show you whether the percentage is moving.
FAQ
What percentage do you need for a H1? 90% or above in a Higher Level subject.
What is a H4? 60% to under 70% at Higher Level. It is worth 66 CAO points.
Is 69% a H4 or a H5? A H4. The H4 band runs from 60% up to but not including 70%.
What grade is 65% at Higher Level? A H4, the same as 60% or 69%. The band is ten percentage points wide.
What percentage is an O1? 90% or above at Ordinary Level. The percentage bands are identical at both levels.
Is a H7 a pass? The current scale has no pass or fail grade. A H7 covers 30% to under 40% and is worth 37 CAO points. In the CAO's general matriculation requirements, O6/H7 is the lowest grade named, and it stands where an ordinary level D3 stood before 2017.
What happens if you get less than 30%? The grade is a H8 at Higher Level or an O8 at Ordinary Level, and it is worth 0 CAO points.
Are there still E, F and NG grades? No. Those belong to the pre-2017 scale. Results from August 2017 onwards use H1 to H8 and O1 to O8.
Do Higher and Ordinary Level use different percentage bands? No. Both use the same eight bands. The points attached to each band differ.
Find out which band you are in. Open the past paper finder, pull a recent paper in the subject you are worried about with its official marking scheme, and mark it honestly against the scheme. The percentage you get is the only version of your grade you can act on.